"That sounds... risky," Kyle said with a deep breath.
"Oh yeah," Sebastian said with a nod. "I can see how everyone else died. Dude, the pain... it was indescribable. When she told me that I should condense Sin Flames and that I should learn to live with them for ten thousand years in preparation for the experiment, I already expected a lot of pain, but damn, it was so much worse."
When Kyle heard that, he took a deep breath through his teeth. He knew very well how painful Sin Flames were. He couldn't imagine a worse pain, but apparently, it could get even worse.
"Why was the pain so bad?" Kyle asked.
"Because I needed to change how my everything works," Sebastian answered. "My Core Spark is still connected to me, and an Elemental is made of pure Elemental Energy. Sure, you can store Elemental Energy in your Center, but that's because it has your will on it. The Lightning Energy I get from my Elemental is willless. Imagine Lightning coursing through your... everything, just everything."
Kyle shook his head in disbelief. "I'm pretty sure that's impossible. If willless Elemental Energy courses unchecked through your body, it's not different from a guy attacking you. Even if you could withstand the pain, you would just explode and die."
"Yeah, which is why I said that it's because of her," Sebastian added. "She kept me alive by continuously healing me. I was essentially dying for a long time while being conscious."
"And how are you not dying now?" Kyle asked with a raised brow.
"Because I had to change everything," Sebastian answered. "It's the same principle the Cult uses to change their ratio of Death and Energy. You have to find ways to combine them, but you have to do that yourself. Others can't help you with that. It's like understanding a really difficult Law, except that you're in unending agony the entire time."
Kyle just shook his head. He understood the principle behind it. He could see how it could work, in theory.
'Dude, that's unfeasible,' he thought. 'It's like saying that a Mortal could work for 17 hours every single day for an entire decade without any weekends. Technically, you could get enough sleep and could probably find a way to eat and drink, but it's not feasible. Nobody can withstand that much stress for so long.'
Kyle looked at the Lightning Elemental. 'I don't think I could do that.'
"Anyway," Sebastian said, getting back to the primary topic, "this was one of the reasons why I was an Overseer for so long. We had to experiment a lot. However, I also wanted to wait for the right time to go to the Supreme World."
"Right time?" Kyle asked.
"Yeah, I was waiting for you," Sebastian said with a smirk. "I wanted to wait until you became a Sage or were about to become a Sage."
Kyle's eyes widened. "You waited because of me?"
"Yep," Sebastian said with a smile.
"Why?" Kyle asked. "It's been forever since we saw each other. Didn't you have other friends who were a bit easier to find?"
Sebastian's smile vanished, and a distant expression appeared on his face as he looked to the side.
Kyle could tell that he had hit a sore spot.
"In short, no," Sebastian said with a sigh. "My time in the Secondary World was... tumultuous. I found friends here and there. Most of them died in battle. Some of them betrayed me. When I basically became the enemy of the world, the remainder stepped away. I mean, I get it. I don't expect anyone to walk to their doom. It's their decision."
Kyle remembered the time he and Sebastian had been hunted by almost the entire Tertiary World. The Winterfire Kingdom had won, and their leaders wanted to kill them, which basically meant that the entire world wanted to kill them.
"Why did you become the enemy of the world?" Kyle asked.
"My Battle-Strength was too high, and there are limited resources," Sebastian said with a shrug. "You've no idea how often I've heard certain phrases."
"You're too outstanding to be left alive."
"You have to die before you grow up!"
"We know that you want our Treasures!"
"Join us or die!"
"You can't be left alive!"
"You're a disaster waiting to happen!"
"I will save the world!"
Sebastian groaned and shook his head. "You get the drill. I mean, you should've experienced something similar in the Secondary Sector. The difference is just that my guys didn't have a way to leave the world, which made them more desperate and aggressive. Your guys only want to become Legendary Crushers. They could've just left."
Kyle's brows rose. "You know about the Legendary Realms?"
"Kyle," Sebastian said as if Kyle had asked a question with an obvious answer. "I became the Overseer of a Secondary World. Do you remember how we needed Ether Essences in the Tertiary World? Do you remember how many there were? You need even more to become a Sage, relatively speaking."
"Now, in a world where everyone needs Energy to advance, how many conflicts do you think there are over resources? An Advanced Crusher doesn't have the power to get enough resources to become a Sage, but they might be able to get enough resources to become a Fulfilled Crusher."
"However, you can only hope to succeed if you are already extremely powerful, which means a high Battle-Strength, which means a powerful Complex Law. Do you see where I'm coming from?" he asked.
Kyle saw where Sebastian was going with this. "So, you became a Legendary Crusher."
Sebastian snorted. "Which Sage, who managed to ascend to a Primary World, isn't? Anyone who manages to gather so many resources in a Secondary World is an overlord who can command the entire Secondary World. It's no different from becoming the overlord of a Secondary Sector, except that it's more brutal."
As Kyle listened to Sebastian, he realized something.
'I think I was underestimating the Seekers in the lower worlds,' he thought. 'In the Supreme World, we have access to all of these amazing Law Wells, resources, techniques, experiences, and so on. How could Seekers in lower worlds compete with that?'
'However, that's a generalization. Our resources give us more Seekers, and the truly talented ones will become even stronger.'
'Yet, almost every single Seeker who manages to ascend is outstanding. Which ascending Seeker hasn't dominated an entire world?'
Kyle sighed. 'In Primary Worlds, while looking at freshly ascended Sages, it would probably be strange to find a Sage who hadn't been a Legendary Crusher once.'
"Anyway, to finally answer your question," Sebastian said while gesturing to the Red Witch, "I ascended recently because she said that you might need my help. She said that you were in hot water."
Kyle looked at the Red Witch with a raised brow.
"Why would she care?"
The Red Witch just smiled. "Your strength is valuable to us, and Sebastian sees you as a friend," she answered as if she had read Kyle's mind. "Also, if you were chased by a Sage and Sebastian saved you, it might draw out a big fish. I can't risk unveiling my identity for a small fish."
'And it did draw out a big fish,' Kyle thought with a sigh.
Then, he remembered something. "Speaking of," he said, "the Array of Stars probably knows that you're a Parasite now, right?"
The Red Witch just smiled calmly. "No, they don't suspect a thing."
Kyle's eyes widened. "How? I'm pretty sure they track our whereabouts and would notice your absence."
The Red Witch kept smiling. "They don't know about this Avatar. They think I have three Avatars, but I actually have four."
Kyle wasn't convinced. "Won't they suspect that you have a secret Avatar? That sounds like a common loophole that people might use."
The Red Witch shook her head. "They won't for one simple reason."
"It's stupid to condense more than three Avatars. The more Avatars you have, the weaker they are. Most Immortals have two, and only Immortals who are very confident in their Battle-Strength have three."
"You can only condense your Avatars in the Fusion Realm. As soon as you're an Immortal, you can't make more. Nobody would risk their eternal future just to keep an extra Avatar hidden away."
"I have already shown my Battle-Strength to the Array of Stars, and in their opinion, I am a very powerful Immortal with three Avatars."
The Red Witch chuckled. "They don't know that I was essentially fighting with a secret handicap."
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